


John Connor: Liability

by neil4god



Category: Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles
Genre: Derek POV, Future Fic, John Connor - Freeform, Martin Bledel in Charge, Picks Up Right After S2 Ends, Savannah Weaver-Connor, canon level violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-08-20
Updated: 2013-08-20
Packaged: 2017-12-24 03:01:38
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,489
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/934513
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/neil4god/pseuds/neil4god
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The kid was a liability or a grey or maybe just plain useless, but that didn't stop Derek from taking him back to base with them, if only he could figure out who he reminded him of.</p>
            </blockquote>





	John Connor: Liability

**Author's Note:**

> This might be a series or it might not, haven't quite decided yet so lemme know what you think x x x

The kid was a liability, they couldn’t keep him. He could be a grey or just plain useless. They didn’t have room for stragglers, but dammit if there wasn’t something about the kid. Derek thinks it’s the way he cocks his head before he answers their questions, it’s almost familiar. He’s gotta’ give it to him though, for all that he’s naked and clearly out of his element, he’s not freaking out. Of course that could because he’s a grey sent to spy on them all. They need to leave him here and get back to base as quickly as possible. They’ve already been out here too long. Grabbing his bag Derek signals the others to start moving. The kid wraps Kyle's coat around him and falls into line like he’s done it a hundred times before. 

Puzzled, Derek puts his hand on his shoulder stopping him, “Sorry kid you’re not coming with us.”  
The kid, John, is the same height as him so he doesn’t have to look up to make eye contact, slowly like he expects Derek to know better, John says, “It’s not safe to stay here, it’s too open. Take me to your base and we can figure this out.”  
Surprised by the intensity there and the hint of an order, Derek laughs it off, “Kid you’re not coming with us. We don’t take in strangers.”  
John shrugged off his hand, putting space between them, lowering his voice he told Derek, “You need me and I am coming with you. Either I follow behind or I go in with you.”  
This kid was trying his patience, “Fine then you’re with us. Stay in the middle of the group, I don’t want you wandering off. And if you are a grey then I’ll kill you myself.”  
A slow smile slid across John’s face like he’d just told a joke instead of threatening to kill him. Fed up Derek pushed the kid into the middle of his patrol and took up lead. He would deal with him later. 

They walked for forty minutes before Derek noticed it. Letting Kyle take the lead he dropped back closer to the kid. Once he was close enough he whispered, “What’s wrong?”  
The kid had been twitching for the past ten minutes, his hands making little aborted movements to his waist. When he spoke his voice was hard and his eyes never stopped taking in the landscape, watching everything with a soldiers eyes, “I need a gun. There’s a metal following us.”  
Derek stumbled, John’s arm reaching out to catch him automatically. When he righted himself, one of his guns was in John’s hands and the kid was taking slow careful breaths. How had the kid gotten his gun that fast? Derek had his eyes on him the whole time. Well aware that this could all be a trick Derek kept his gun ready and pointed at John. “Where’s the metal?”  
The kids eyes flickered to the side, cautiously he answered, “There’s a bottle neck ahead, that’s when he’ll strike. He’ll hit from behind so the others have to go across our bodies to fight him. He’ll have the advantage.”  
Derek couldn’t help it, he knew he was staring, but the things the kid was saying, “How do you know that? I can’t even see the metal.”  
Daring a glance over his shoulder Derek still couldn’t see anything and Allison’s dogs weren’t barking. The bottle neck was getting closer, whether the kid was right or wrong it couldn’t hurt to be cautious, so Derek waved Allison ahead, taking her place at the back of the line. 

John stayed beside him, his finger on the trigger as he assessed their surroundings, seeming to come to a decision of some sort. They were just through now, the others already on the other side, Derek was about to tell John he was wrong when the kid barreled into him, knocking him flat onto his back. The kid was on top of him, his weight keeping him down. Struggling to get up Derek tried to toss the kid off him, but he was stronger than he’d expected. John’s hand slapped across his mouth to stop him from shouting for help, Derek couldn’t understand what the kid wanted. He could have killed him, instead he was sitting on him in a pile of debris. When John shifted his weight Derek took the opportunity to buck him off. John moved with it, like he was expecting it and settled close beside Derek, his fingers over his lips. The kid wasn’t even paying him any attention, his gaze focused ahead of him. Following his eye-line Derek saw the heavy boots of a T888 come into view. 

His hulking mass filling the small space, arm raised to take the shot at Allison just a few steps ahead. Without thinking Derek fired, the T888 turned his head taking in both him and John. Cursing under his breath John re-positioned himself, but the T888 followed him, his eyes never leaving John’s face. Derek kept blasting the thing but it wasn’t doing any good, the T888 didn’t even try to defend itself, instead it spoke, it’s voice booming within the small space. “John Connor is alive.”  
Cringing the kid glared back at the machine, “What, you’re not gonna’ terminate me?”  
The kid had to have some kind of death wish, it was the only explanation for why he was baiting a machine. The T888 cocked his head to the side before answering the boy, “My orders are to report your presence to my superiors.”  
Turning his back on them the T888 walked back the way it had come, with John two steps behind. Confused as fuck, Derek kept blasting the thing while John kneeled down in the dirt, taking careful aim before shooting it in the back of the head. The machine dropped instantly, its body spasming before shutting down. 

The others were racing towards them, their weapons raised, but Derek felt like he was floating above it all. The kid had fired one shot the entire time and it had taken down a T888. He did it like it was nothing, he wasn’t even smiling. Instead he looked irritated as he stepped up to the machine, a knife he must have stolen from someone, in his hand. Bending down he cut into the back of the metal’s head digging something out Derek couldn’t see before tugging off the machine’s clothes. They would be too big for him, but they were better than nothing. The others surrounded them wanting to know what happened, but in all honesty Derek wasn’t sure. The whole thing had been so bizarre he wouldn’t know what to say, so he stayed quiet and watched the kid get dressed. Giving Kyle back his coat the kid smiled and thanked him for the loan before pocketing the knife and putting the gun in the back of his pants. Without seeming to realise it the kid took the lead, letting the others follow behind him. Shaking himself out of it, Derek sidled closer to Kyle, keeping his voice low, “Something’s up with this kid Kyle. Keep an eye on him, I want to know what his deal is.”  
Kyle nodded and Derek went back to the front reminding John that he didn’t actually know where they were going. 

The kid wasn’t a talker. Derek spent the walk back to base trying to get him to open up, but John barely said anything, just that he used to travel with his family and he didn’t anymore. He wouldn’t tell Derek what happened, why he was alone now, the more he pushed for answers the more the kid shut down, so he stopped and focused on getting everyone back to base. Base wasn’t much, a temporary campsite safe from the metal. There weren’t very many of them, maybe twenty people total living there, but nowadays that was considered to be pretty big. There was another camp two hours over that had fifteen people last Derek checked. They didn’t spend much time together though, everyone was out for themselves now. There was no resistance or guerrilla war, there was just the fight for survival and that meant keeping to yourself and trusting no-one but family. 

Derek pressed John forward, pushing him past the curious guards watching the exits. Watching John carefully, Derek saw how he noticed everything, sweeping over the camp and taking everything in out of habit or experience, he wasn’t sure which. Either way he didn’t like it. Bedell was working at his desk, his head bent over maps when they got in. He didn’t even look up, but Derek didn’t take it to heart. Jostling the boy forward he told Bedell, “Look what I found.”  
Curious blue eyes looked up passing over Derek and landing on John. In an instant Bedell was out of his chair and grabbing onto John. The boy hugged him back, holding on tight to the older man. 

Startled Derek stepped back, waiting for some sort of explanation. Instead Bledel ignored him completely, asking John, “Where were you? I looked everywhere.”  
There was an accusation there that Derek didn’t quite follow. Sheepishly the boy replied, “I skipped over it, I jumped here, landed a couple hours ago actually.”  
He watched Bedell process whatever that meant, as if it explained everything. Before the boy could say anything else Bedell told him, “I did everything I could John. When it hit I found my men from West Point, took them around looking for you, fighting the machines but it was never enough. When I found Reese I decided to wait, I figured you’d come for him eventually.”  
Derek was absolutely lost. He had no idea what they were talking about only that it somehow involved him or Kyle. Bledel continued “I’m not you John. I’m not cut out for this.”  
There was a question there Derek was sure of it. 

John closed his eyes briefly, straightening his back and seeming older than he was said, “You don’t have to Martin. I’m here now, I’ll take over.”  
He doesn’t think he’s ever seen Bedell look so relieved, not even when they escaped that squadron a few months back. Bedell hugged him again, thanking him quietly and when he pulled back he wasn’t in charge anymore. Derek couldn’t say how it happened, only that it was like Bedell gave John his authority, or judging by Bedell’s reaction to John's presence, maybe he was just giving it back to its original owner. Bedell had never had a great plan to save everyone, he had never set out to lead a resistance, but Derek knows he wanted to. He tried at one point, but he couldn’t hold it together for longer than a week. He didn’t have that thing that makes people follow someone into certain death. John spoke again in that soft serious voice that made Derek want to jump to obey, asking Bedell, “Show me the maps. I need to get my bearings again.”  
John kept talking as Bedell led him over to the desk, sorting through the maps and pointing out their position. Bedell slipped into the role of second in command seamlessly. 

“What’s nearby? Any settlements or camps?”  
Bedell shook his head, pulling out the old radio they hardly used, “There’s a camp two hours from here, but no-one’s what you’d call friendly John. This isn’t the resistance we don’t talk to each other or interact beyond bartering. It’s too big a risk.”  
Ignoring him John stared at him until he gave him the information he needed to call the other camp. The line crackled with static until a tinny sounding voice answered asking for their name and what they wanted. John ignored his questions and demanded to be put through to the person in charge. Derek chuckled softly to himself, the kid was going to get his ass handed to him. After a few moments a female voice came through the line, “This better be important Bedell!”  
John’s eyes flickered up in surprise, his voice almost hesitant as he said, “Savannah?”  
The crackling distorted her voice, but Derek could have sworn he heard the same hesitancy, “Yes?”  
Laughing the boy answered, “It’s John is my mom there?”  
Derek watched Bedell shift closer to John ready to comfort him, bad news then. “John? Oh thank god! We thought you were lost.”  
There was so much guilt in John’s eyes that Derek had to look away, it was too intimate a moment to be shared with a stranger, “I know I’m sorry. Did she take you?”  


“Yeah she saved me, taught me everything I needed to know. She took out a squadron of T888’s a couple months after Judgement Day, the cancer was killing her John, she chose to do it that way instead. We held it off as long as we could.”  
The boy’s head dipped low, his shoulders shaking slightly. Derek couldn’t stop himself from reaching out, wrapping the boy in his arms. He stayed like that only a moment, breathing in Derek’s scent as if it was comforting, before stepping back and telling Savannah, “I’m sorry Savannah I know how hard it must have been with me gone.”  
There was a pause on the other end, whatever he was trying to tell her, she clearly understood, “It was hard but you’re here now John so I can stop right?”  
Derek wasn’t sure what she wanted to stop, she led a camp of fifteen people, she couldn’t stop leading them or protecting them could she? John answered quietly, “You can stop now. I need to catch up on some things but we need to meet, we should join the two camps. I’ll find a better site, send out scouts in then morning then start on a generator and getting more people.”  
He obviously expected her to agree with him, just like BedeLl she ceded all authority to him, agreeing politely while he continued “There’s a building an hour from here, bright blue, MPX Corp meet me there at noon. It’ll be really good to see you again, last time, well you were so young.”  
“You too, I’ve always imagined you as being sort of a brother, if that’s ok?”  
Well that explained why she didn't chew his ass out over calling her on an unsecure line at least. Savannah Connor scared the crap out of most everyone in their camp and from what he heard she got it all from her mother, so John must be the same. “I feel the same way Savannah.”  
“Alright John I’ll see you tomorrow.”  
Whatever was happening here he could feel himself being sucked into it like gravity. He wanted to merge their camps, to do whatever John asked because for the first time in years, it seemed like someone knew what they were doing and to Derek that was priceless.


End file.
